Head Hunting for small businesses

Once you’ve found out what Head Hunting is, what it’s for, how it’s done, and how much it costs, one more question that needs to be answered is who it’s for. Of course, the obvious first answer is that it is aimed at companies. But this category is too broad. According to INPS, there were 1,614,243 active in Italy in 2020. Not all 1,614,243 need the services of headhunting firms. In fact, a large company that employs over 5,000 people probably has an internal talent scouting section, and turning to Head Hunters would be redundant for them (for example, a brief search on Linkedin shows 378 employees working in the HR department of Stellantis Italia). In this article, we will focus on Head Hunting for small businesses.

Head Hunters are particularly useful for small and medium sized companies that do not have such a structured workforce of HR experts in-house that they can act independently. In fact, on the one hand, the lower turnover of these companies does not allow them to amortize the costs of internal management of the Personnel Search; on the other hand, the small size means a lower number of hirings required compared to large companies (to continue the comparison with Stellantis, at the moment the Turin-based company has opened 74 recruitment ads in Italy) which does not justify the hiring of specialized personnel for the Personnel Search. In other words, it doesn’t make economic sense for a company with a turnover of €500,000 to hire a Talent Scout with a RAL ranging from €25,000 to €35,000 to manage three or four hires per year.

The Solution: Head Hunting for Small Businesses

The solution, therefore, is to outsource the Search and Selection of personnel. This means relying on Head Hunting agencies. In Italy they are numerous and offer an excellent service. In two respects, however, they are lacking:

1. They are having a hard time keeping up with the times: because of the way they operate, many Head Hunters seem to be having difficulty harnessing the technological revolution of the information age. In fact, thanks to the Internet, it has undoubtedly become much easier to search for jobs and get a job ad out to a large number of people. In spite of this, many Head Hunters continue to set up the relationship with their clients in the manner of the past: a successful FEE contract is signed (but often with advances), the Search and Selection process is started, and after a variable period of a few weeks some candidates are proposed to the client. This doesn’t take into account new tools that allow the client to find many candidates on their own (for example, Linkedin); on the other hand, a closer and more constant communication between Head Hunter and client.
2. They lack reliability: if you have already turned to a Head Hunting agency, you may have had the bad experience of having outsourced the search for a position, but without achieving any results (perhaps even paying an advance). This is because, working to success, traditional Head Hunters will prioritize searching for easier, less time-consuming profiles. It comes down to simple common sense. For example, let’s say a Head Hunter is working with a FEE of 20% of RAL. He is given searches for two positions, both with similar RAL. If he knows that the first search will require 20 hours of work, and the second will require at least 40, which one will he prioritize? For a small business that urgently needs a specific profile to grow, this flaw could be “deadly”.

Ricercamy’s solution

Ricercamy makes up for both shortcomings:

1. Thanks to our cloud sharing tools, we’ll always be in touch. What’s more, since you’ll be purchasing hourly packages from us, you’ll be the one to point us to the service you need. Want us to take care of the entire process? Great! Already have an ad posted on Linkedin that has received 200 applications and need help screening resumes? That’s always fine with us. With Ricercamy, the service is totally transparent and we will adapt to your needs, not the other way around.
2. Thanks to our transparency, you will never have to entrust us with a job and not hear back from us for weeks. As we like to repeat, our aim is not to sell packages (we clearly don’t mind) but that you come back to us after a first collaboration.  In case we realize that the search is having problems (the required characteristics are unobtainable, the proposed RAL is too low…) you will be informed immediately. In this way, we can solve the problem together. With us, your small business can grow. Our aim is to make you grow: after all, it means that you will give us more work.

After this article, I hope it’s clear why Ricercamy is the perfect small business headhunting company.

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